Monday, August 25, 2008

Sometimes I get tired of Scott McCloud being treated as the official-and-only-source-of-received-wisdom-about-comics. I get that McCloud is sort of to comics what Ralph Nader was to consumer safety ( ... you know ... before Nader became a kooky spoiler presidential candidate ... ), but sometimes it's just enough already. The world of comics is big, and there are a lot of people—heck, a lot of older, more experienced people—that reporters could talk to about the subject. (And I've been on the reporting side, so I also understand what a pain in the butt it is to track down expert sources, which is why, as a writer, you're glad someone like McCloud exists.)

"Graphic novel" is "a goofy term," McCloud tells his listeners. "The first graphic novel that got a lot of play was Will Eisner's 'Contract With God.' The thing's an anthology. The next graphic novel that got a lot of play was 'Maus,' and it's a memoir. There are very few graphic novels that are actually graphic novels.

"What they are is a publishing shorthand that says: big fat comic with a spine -- and people get that."

Boy—there it is. Why is that so hard for people? Why is that so contentious? I love that: "BIG FAT COMIC WITH A SPINE!" [insert Artie Lange joke here]

Here's McCloud's best line:

Now McCloud is taking audience questions, and here comes one that seems aimed in my [i.e., the skeptical reporter's] direction.

What about those still-numerous naysayers, he is asked, who resist the idea that books filled with word balloons should be taken as seriously as pure prose? Isn't there a way to educate those annoying old fogies -- perhaps through some kind of "adult literacy campaign for comics"?

Sounds good to me. After all, isn't education what I'm here for?

McCloud offers a different perspective. Some people will never get it, he says.

"And it's okay. They'll die."

Thanks to Newsarama for the link. (I actually saw the article a few days ago, but couldn't work up the enthusiasm to read past the first page of the dubious 5-page story. So I missed the McCloud quotes.)